Rachael Harris as a sex-deprived wife and Matt O'Leary as her husband's newly-discovered druggie son in a scene from "Natural Selection" in an undated handout photo. The film is about a woman who sets out to find her husband's son so that father and son can meet before the father dies. (Cinema Guild via The New York Times) -- NO SALES; FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY WITH STORY SLUGGED NATURAL FILM REVIEW. ALL OTHER USE PROHIBITED. --

In 'Natural Selection,' wife has to learn to become the fittest for survival

For Robbie Pickering, bad news led to good things last month when his directorial debut, "Natural Selection," earned a Grand Jury prize and six other awards at Austin's South by Southwest film festival. The movie, which follows a mother who's suddenly left to her own devices after her husband suffers a stroke, took root the night Pickering got a phone call from his mom informing him that her husband - his stepfather - had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Pickering recalls, "I was just terrified thinking about my mom being alone, and that became the emotional window into this story about a woman who can't go to bed alone, and who, by the end of the film, might be able to do that."

The twist in "Natural Selection" comes when devout Christian housewife Linda White, portrayed by Rachael Harris ("The Hangover"), discovers that her stricken spouse secretly fathered children as a sperm donor. She sets off to locate his son, who turns out to be a charming escaped convict (Matt O'Leary).

"The sperm bank thing came from the fact that I used to give sperm back at NYU at a clinic in the Empire State Building," Pickering says. "I took a biology class and became fascinated that survival of the fittest isn't really about two rams butting heads on the cliff; it's about who can pass on their genetic material and procreate the most. It makes sense for me that a lot of that found its way into the movie."

Filmed in just 18 days for $150,000 in Smithville, Texas - the same town served as primary location for Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" - "Natural Selection" underscores its funny, off-kilter moments with a thoughtful reckoning with mortality.

"I never wanted to do a didactic recitation of my mom's situation, but I wanted to put those emotions into a character like my mom, but then place her in this kind of a bizarre world," Pickering says. When faced with loneliness the death of someone close to them, people become like drowning animals: They want to grab on to whatever they can to distract them, to keep them afloat, from being alone. That was always the emotional justification for her journey."

In 1930 Taiwan, it's rainbows against sun

"Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale" revisits a bloody 1930 rebellion by Taiwan's mountain tribes against their Japanese rulers. Poison gas and aircraft crush the uprising, but the little-known chapter of history inspired Taiwanese filmmaker Wei Te-Shengto dramatize the incident as a salute to the island's indigenous people.

The "Warrior" director says he wanted to address "the encounter between a people who believe in rainbows and a nation which believes in the sun. My intention is to re-examine the Wushe Incident ... through the prism of Seediq beliefs."

Sundance co-founder's website for actors

Sundance Film Festival co-founder Gary Beerspent 15 years helping to build the annual Park City, Utah, event into a leading showcase for up-and-coming filmmakers. Now he hopes to do the same for actors. Describing his new Web venture, StarCast Auditions, Beer explains, "We're a filter and vetting service that says to the public at large: 'If you think you can act, send us your audition tape."

Starcastauditions.com posts original sample scenes, categorized by genre and age, then invites actors to submit video of themselves performing the dialogue.

StarCast charges actors a submission fee and spotlights the best performances online.

"At Sundance, we established a platform for new writers, directors and producers," Beer says, "but there is no clear route for the aspiring actor, no matter what drama school you went to or how much professional coaching you have. My partner Jules Haimovitz, who ran TV and production companies Spelling Entertainment and Dick Clark Productions, became frustrated by that."

Beer hopes the StarCast platform will produce breaks for talent that might otherwise get lost in the shuffle. {sbox}